University Computer Science Faculty Blogs

I read a lot of blogs. Perhaps too many. But there are a few blogs I could not do without. I thought I might do a series of recommendations on different types of blogs and suggest some of the best to my readers. I thought I would start with a couple of blogs by computer science faculty members from a couple of universities. There are probably more good blogs out there than these but these are the ones I never miss because of the great content, the quality of the writing and the fact that they have content approachable by people like me (i.e. people comfortable teaching high school students.) So in no particular order here are some suggestions.

Mark Guzdial – Georgia Tech, GA, US Computing Education Blog

Mark is probably doing more research in how to teach computer science right than anyone else I know. His posts include information about the CS Principles course, he is on the advisory board, which will probably be a new APCS course. He talks about the work they are doing at Georgia Tech both in terms of teaching new and different courses there as well as the Georgia Computes! program that is helping to develop more CS education at the HS level in Georgia. I wish I wrote half as well as Mark. Whether if be his commentary on the various articles he finds or information about his own work or discussion of  things his graduate students are doing what you will find here are well thought out, well written and informative posts. His are the first posts I read most days.

Eugene Wallingford, University of Northern Iowa, IW, US Knowing and Doing

Eugene writes a lot about the things he does in class and I find this very informative. Teaching and Learning is the top item in his blog categories list. Computing and Software Development as close behind. This is another blog I like for its well thought out and well written posts. And like a lot of Mark Guzdial’s posts, the posts here often make me think. And I am always learning from this blog as well. From insights into pedagogy to societal issues in computing I find a lot of value in this blog.

Gail Carmichael, PhD student at Carleton University in Canada The Female Perspective of Computer Science

I like this blog for its perspective and for the insights she shares from the courses and workshops that she teachers. She also does research in augmented reality and has good knowledge of games as teaching tools. And of course gender equity, something I care deeply about, is something she is well qualified to write about. So I learn a lot.

Rob Miles – Hull University, UK Rob Miles' Journal

The first thing you have to know about Rob is that he has a great sense of humor. The second thing is that he knows what he is talking about with regards to game development and programming for mobile devices. Rob has written a lot of good curriculum resources and is one heck of a speaker. On his blog he shares a lot of his resources as well as a lot about his life. This is not all tech all the time by any means. So if you take things too seriously read about the other blogs here. But for me I enjoy his travel talk and outstanding photography as well as the insights into teaching and software development. Rob is one of the first bloggers I ever started reading and I enjoy his work a great deal.

A couple of other good university faculty blogs for you  to take a look at:

• Jim Huggins Kettering University – I just started following Jim more recently but like what I read so far.
• Existential Type Robert Harper, Carnegie Mellon University – Very technical and I don’t always follow everything